Related Stories

Who knows? If Ondrej Pavelec wins Winnipeg's last six regular-season games via the shootout, he might come to love the skills competition.

"No, I'm never going to say that," the Jets netminder said Wednesday morning. "No, no, no. Absolutely not. You're not going to hear that from me. I'm not going to change my mind, that's for sure."

We'll give Pavelec a few more minutes to think about his answer, because he seems a little uncertain. In the meantime, it should be pointed out that Pavelec appears to be turning a corner in his career when it comes to the shootout.

The shootout has been a bit of an albatross during Pavelec's career. His save percentage was below the .600 mark going into this season, and his career win-loss record was 6-12. Considering the Jets are in the midst of a dogfight to get to the playoffs right now, any extra shootout points will be mighty valuable down the stretch.

Pavelec won his second straight shootout on Tuesday night when he stopped Tampa Bay's Teddy Purcell and Richard Panik, while Mike Santorelli and Andrew Ladd took care of business at the south end of MTS Centre. Now, Purcell and Panik ain't exactly Gretzky and Lemieux, but Pavelec will take them any way he can get them.

The Czech netminder has turned aside 14 of 18 shootout attempts this season, which gives him the third-best save percentage in the league among the 30 goaltenders who have faced at least eight shots.

"I just hold my ground, be patient and wait for the first move," Pavelec said. "That Toronto shootout (during which he stopped nine of 10 shots on March 16) helped me a lot, to get the confidence a little bit. (Tuesday) the guys scored nice goals at the right time.

"I was trying to guess too much before. Now I just try to wait for the first move and be a little bit more patient."

Pavelec and goaltending coach Wade Flaherty sit down before every game with a laptop and examine the shooting tendencies of that night's opposition snipers. They've always done that, though, so it's not the reason for his improved play.

Flaherty believes the 25-year-old is simply maturing.

"He's done a good job," Flaherty said. "He's become a lot more patient in the net, and that's what you saw (Tuesday) night. He held his ground, forcing the players to make their moves where he was able to react to them and trust his ability to move and his quickness in his legs. And that's exactly what he did."

The book on Pavelec is to go high glove, but Purcell and Panik both tried to beat him low on the blocker side. That was an example of Pavelec being ready for anything and waiting for it to happen instead of figuring they would try to go top shelf.

The two stops, along with Santorelli's and Ladd's tallies, allowed the Jets to remain tied with the eighth-place New York Rangers with 46 points in the Eastern Conference. Hey, with good news like that, maybe Pavelec will end up changing his mind about the shootout.

"It doesn't change what I think about the shootouts -- at all," he said.

As Advertised in the Winnipeg SUN

No love for shootout

Who knows? If Ondrej Pavelec wins Winnipeg's last six regular-season games via the shootout, he might come to love the skills competition.

"No, I'm never going to say that," the Jets netminder said Wednesday morning. "No, no, no. Absolutely not. You're not going to hear that from me. I'm not going to change my mind, that's for sure."

We'll give Pavelec a few more minutes to think about his answer, because he seems a little uncertain. In the meantime, it should be pointed out that Pavelec appears to be turning a corner in his career when it comes to the shootout.

The shootout has been a bit of an albatross during Pavelec's career. His save percentage was below the .600 mark going into this season, and his career win-loss record was 6-12. Considering the Jets are in the midst of a dogfight to get to the playoffs right now, any extra shootout points will be mighty valuable down the stretch.